Itemized: Native Shoes Jimmy Boot

Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Naomi Zeichner talks about her Native Shoes Jimmy Boots.

This time last year, I bought a pair of very expensive clog boots that I expect will last me a lifetime. I wore them down to shit, through the entire season and into Spring. On that tear, some (fixable) damage was incurred. One clog now has a hole at the toe, where leather meets wood. I realized this just before Halloween, during a surprising and awful day of wet, freezing snowfall. Reportedly, it was the earliest storm to produce more than one inch of snow in New York City since records have been taken. Weird weather! Now, just two days shy of December 1st, it's 65 degrees in New York. Without much discomfort, I could be wearing sandals.

Instead, like some kind of rain-dance for Winter's reasonable onset, I'm wearing ankle-high, waterproof boots. Made with bacteria-fighting, washable fabric that resists smelling bad, they look incredibly serious. But they're actually kind of hilarious because they weigh nothing. These boots are like house slippers or a surgeon's foam clogs, but somehow braced to bear the load of salted ice, concrete and mud. Shoes for the future! Mine are chocolate brown (ready to camouflage soil) but Jimmys also come in a vibrant periwinkle called Jellybean Purple. If the weather will continue this way, unpredictably bizarre, foreboding and a little bit scary, maybe slogging through whatever comes with barely-there, damage-proof and candy-toned boots on is the way to go?